Hi to All:

I am pleased to be here in this venue and hopefully will enjoy my stay here as long as I like.

I own four horses and love each and every one of them. My first horse that I bought was an Arabian Egyptian by the barn name Lana (CR Lady Helana). She is my most favorite ride that I own so far. I have taken this horse with me last year to ride at Cross Country Trail Rides in Eminence, Mo. (the week long trail riding circuit) and I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world for her devotion and ride she gives me. I would have taken her with me the year before, but she was in foal to my baby, Hel's Belle.

So I ended up buying a Poco Bueno QH, by the name of Diamond. Diamond is a good QH, a little hot headed at times and lets you know what she wants. I took her to Eminence my first year down there, and enjoyed the ride so well, that I committed to going back for each year. This year, 2008 will be my 3rd year there. I usually go down in June and this year I plan on attending both in June and August.

Belle, (Hel's Belle) is my first born foal, and she is the light of my life. We are so bonded, that I could actually be her second mom, but she knows me as Dad. She was born exactly 2 days after we arrived back from Eminence, Mo. off of the trail ride. She is a full Arabian sired by an Anglo Arab, but since he has no papers, I could only register her as a half-Arab. I, myself, imprinted this baby from 5 hours after she was born, broke her to halter on her second day, and trained her to walk to me to greet, instead of crow-hopping to give me hugs, by trying to place her front legs on my shoulders. She is literally my shadow, anytime I am with her. She is such a pleasure to be around for me, although she tolerates (sometimes barely) all others around her. Others who work with her, say she is very pushy, but the second I walk into the ring she is a puppy dog. I could never ask for a better horse as she implicitly trusts me to no end. I may be the only one she will let break and ride her, as she will allow me to pick her feet and lean on her rear and not budge.

The next horse I bought was a Foxtrotter/Paint which I eventually turned back to the original owners, as he was really headstrong for me, and has since integrated back into his family, which it seems he has missed. His name is Gideon.

The final horse I bought and still own is Jackson, a non-registered TWH. He is such a sweet boy and I love him to death too. He has not been ridden here lately, but the lady where I board horses at now, has offered to tune him up for me, since I can't seem to find the time to do it, working 10 -12 hours a day driving a semi-for a living. (besides she wants to be the first to ride him after tuning) I bought Jackson as a stud, and one month after moving him to his current residence, we had him gelded. This boy was so drugged out when we gelded him, I remained by his side till he came to and walked him around the yard to make sure he would be ok. Jackson has seemed to bond to me also and possibly will make a great ride for me too.

Now here is where the hearbreaker comes in, and what really P.o'd me off. I had to move my horses from their original farm I had boarded at, because I had bought too many horses and the landowner at that time, could not handle that many horses. Unfortunately I moved them all 26 miles away from my home residence, and paid the landowner to feed and protect them. After handing that landowner $1100 for feed and space, and going up to take my one sold horse to its new owners, I found all of my horses mal-nutritioned with NO water in the trough they all drank out of. There were approximately 23 horses on an 11 acre section of land and the landowners horses were running all of my horses off of the new hay (that I personally bought) and let them feed on dusty older hay. When I walked up to my baby of 6-8 months and was loving on her, I saw her hair was rubbing right off of her body and then looked to being all skin and bones. I had already moved Lana up to her original owners for rebuild at this time in Nebraska. (she had never put on much weight since foaling, so we attributed that to the baby feeding, which was wrong at the time)

I immediately went looking for all the halters and lead ropes I could find, (the landowner was not at the property at the time) especially when I saw my TWH literally stumble down to the water trough, that I was filling, and I got extremely mad then. As I was getting ready to go halter horses for removal from the property, the landowner showed up. Needless to say, I gave him a chewing out like never before, and he assisted me in loading 3 of my 4 horses, I had at the place, onto the trailer hooked to my truck. (his trailer that I borrowed) While at the farm, I had called a friend of mine, and he arranged for me to move these horses to a new and better location. When I arrived at the new location, the new landowner was fit to be tied when, she saw the shape my horses were in.

We unloaded all of the horses, which I brought down, off of the trailer, and I was told to go get any remaining horsess that I owned and get them back there. The only one left was my QH, Diamond. So once I removed all of my horses, this Rescue farm made sure that my horses would not be treated the very same way since. I have been told that before I move my horses from that farm, that any new location MUST be approved by them, prior to moving. I appreciate this idea immensely. I could not ask for a better landowner to board at, but I know I want my own place one day too.

Needless to say, I had to personally rescue my own horses from an abusing landowner, and am glad I saved them in the end. Authorities were called and complaints made about the other landowner, but so far nothing seems to have been done about it. "Before" pictures were taken for authorities, and some of the "after" pictures have been posted here and elsewhere on the net. I have been considering opening a Rescue operation of my own, here in the St. Joesph area, and my current landowner is anxious to join in too. I have a line up of people, who have already stated, once the ranch opens, they want to come and work for me. So now it is a matter of gathering the money to buy, open, and supply the ranch, to get this thing under way.

This will be a little overwhelming for me to open this Ranch (The Evening Star Ranch), but I feel that it will be the best thing that I could ever do, for myself, the horses, and dogs I would rescue. Keep your eyes glued to the Net, your ears listening to the word in the wind, and you will see and hear the biggest and one of the best Rescue operations going especially here in the MidWest.

As a postscript, I have found cinch burn marks on my QH since moving her off of the other farm, and that leads me to believe, the people there, at the other ranch, were riding her while mal-nutritioned. To me this is abuse of horses, and like I said, complaints were made, but nothing has ever seemed to have been done about it.

When we can get officials into office who are more concerned about the welfare of animals, then we will constantly have the problems we experience today, with abuse, slaughtering of healthy horses, and general mistreatment of any animals, who don't deserve it. I have thought about running for District Judge in my area, along with 6 others, to oust the incumbent judges, and implementing a system where the people, themselves, have the say on issues, instead of the "Good Old Boy" (which is now firmly in place here) system, we have today in these Districts. I would set the example for all other officials in all the other Districts to follow from that time on.